L’ascolto dei bambini da principio normativo a pratica sociale: osservazioni dal contesto torinese

• Main Authors: Manuela Olagnero, Dario Rei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2006-08-01
• Series: Quaderni di Sociologia
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/qds/971
• ISSN: 0033-4952; 2421-5848

The aim of this contribution is to analyse the assumptions behind, and some observable consequences of, the application of an international legal norm, sanctioning recognition of children’s rights, since the end of the 1980s.The focus is on the judicial practice referring to children’s right to be heard, and actively considered, particularly in decisions regarding management of family tensions and in separation and divorce procedures.The research, carried out in Turin, is mainly based on testimony from the actors involved: magistrates and «honorary judges» (various childhood experts who collaborate with magistrates).Some questions have been posed regarding:a) whether these changes mean innovation to the cultural and social pattern which in Italy has traditionally preserved a strong asymmetry in allocating autonomy and responsibility among various age groups;c) how «expert» and professionals actors (judges, teachers, social workers) deal with the new responsibilities they are expected to assume towards families and children.The initial findings confirm the hypothesis that, in a framework where children are no longer subject to the exclusive mediation of the family, the new mandate have ambivalent consequences: on one hand it brings in third parties who can foster and modify the relationship between adult and children’s worlds, while on the other hand it introduces greater, and maybe less controllable, complexity in the network of actions among the various actors involved.